To receive PEPG press releases and announcements as they become available, subscribe to PEPG News.
2013
January 10, 2013 Trying to nudge the Constitution out of place In an op/ed published by The Washington Times, Paul E. Peterson looks at President Barack Obama's relationship with the Constitution and practice of bypassing Congress.
2012
July 16, 2012 The New Complacency About Schools Is Ill-Informed In Time Magazine, former NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein references Education Next's article "Is the U.S. Catching Up?" the short version of the PEPG report by PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and co-authors Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann.
July 16, 2012 Hanushek, Peterson and Woessmann: Student Achievement Gains in U.S. Fail to Close
International Achievement Gap U.S. ranks 25th out of 49 countries in student test-score gains over 14-year period, report 3 scholars at Harvard, Stanford and the University of Munich. Read the full version here and the Education Next article.
June 4, 2012 Peterson, Howell, and West: Teachers Unions Have a Popularity Problem
In this WSJ op-ed, PEPG's Paul E. Peterson and his coauthors, Howell and West, share results from the upcoming PEPG-EdNext survey which showed that only 22% of Americans think unions have a positive effect on schools.
March 7, 2012 "Low Family Income Not a Major Reason For Poor Student Achievement" Education Next recently published an analysis of the Broader, Bolder Approch to education reform. The article written by PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson, "Neither Broad Nor Bold: A narrow-minded approach to school reform," will apprear in the summer issue of Education Next. The press release can be found here.
January 7, 2012
"Resisting the song of the third-party siren" PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson shares his opinons on third parties in American politics in this op-ed appearing in the Chicago Tribune.
2011
August 28, 2011 "Why Can't U.S. Students Compete?" Newsweek recently released an article covering the PEPG-Education Next report "Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready To Compete?" The article discusses the report's findings and the reasons why twice as many students in Singapore are proficient in math as in the United States.
The full report can be found here.
August 16, 2011 "U.S. Deputy Secretary to Address American Students' Global Competitiveness, Importance of Learning from Other Countries" On August 17, 2011, U.S. Deputy Secretary Tony Miller will discuss the importance of understanding key data and learning best practices from the highest-achieving nations at Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) event, “Lessons from the International Experience: Lifting U.S. Students to World-Class Levels of Performance.” Read the U.S. Department of Education Press Release
August 8, 2011 " Political Conditions Cited as Key Factors Affecting State Default Risk"
This recently released study reveals that a state’s perceived risk of default on its bonds is associated not only with economic conditions within the state but also two key political factors: the strengh of unions, and the proportion of Democrats in the state's legislature. Read the Press Release for the survey
August 5, 2011 "Do We Really Need to Spend More on Schools?"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson shares poll results from the 5th annual Education Next - PEPG Survey. The poll revealed that the public thinks more money should be spent on schools, that is, until they hear how much is already being spent per pupil.
April 11, 2011 "Holes in the case against Michelle Rhee"
In this Washington Times Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul Peterson scrutinizes two recent studies of student achievement in the District of Columbia, and concludes that “the case against Michelle Rhee” is full of holes. The article is based on a study that appears in the Summer 2011 issue of Education Next.
2010
November 10, 2010 "U.S. Students Not Measuring Up in Math"
PEPG Director Paul Peterson appears on NBC Nightly News to discuss his new report (co-authored with Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann) that says the number of American high school students with top-level math skills is shockingly low. Watch the segment
August 24, 2010 "Mathews on Saving Schools"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson responds to Jay Mathews' commentary on Peterson's book, Saving Schools.
August 23, 2010 "Supporters of Race to the Top Outnumber Opponents, but Plurality of Public Has No Opinion, Education Next Survey Shows"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson discusses the public's opinion on Race to the Top.
August 20, 2010 "Summer Session in Steamboat Springs"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson reflects on his recent "Seminar at Steamboat."
August 16, 2010 "In New York City, the Issue Is Reading, Not Gaps Between High and Low Performers"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson critiques Monday's New York Times front page report on the racial education gap in New York City.
August 13, 2010 "Will We Have the Best Courses Online in Five Years?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson shares his thoughts on the future of online learning.
August 11, 2010 "If Obama Beat Clinton in Colorado, Nancy Beat Barack in Washington"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul Peterson disusses the recent $20 billion handout to local school districts and other state agencies.
August 9, 2010 "Common Standards Remarkably Uncontroversial"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about the politics and economics of the Common Core standards.
August 4, 2010 "After Bucking Unions, Obama Administration Breaks Ranks with Civil Rights Groups over Charter Schools"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about why civil rights groups have been reluctant to embrace charter schools, even as a new Ed Next poll shows that support for charters is rising among minority parents.
August 3, 2010 "African-Americans for Charter Schools"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul Peterson and Deputy Director Martin West reveal new survey data that show black support for charter schools is on the rise. They then ask, why is the NAACP opposed to charters?
August 2, 2010 "EdNext Poll Shows Civil Rights Groups Out of Touch on Charters"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Deputy Director Martin West disusses recently released data from the 2010 Education Next-PEPG Survey that show increased support for charter schools among African-Americans, despite the NAACP's opposition to them.
July 22, 2010 "Republicans to Save Obama’s Education Reforms—and Perhaps His Presidency?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson outlines his belief that, despite the rapidly changing political scene, there is reason to expect new action on the education policy front as soon as 2011 arrives.
July 21, 2010 "No, Al Shanker Did Not Invent the Charter School"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson refutes the oft mentioned claim that union leader Al Shanker jump-started the charter movement.
July 12, 2010 "Compared to Other Countries, Does the United States Really Do That Badly in Math?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson, along with Hoover Institution colleague Eric Hanushek, compare results from the PISA and TIMSS math surveys to see whether we have unfairly maligned our schools.
July 9, 2010 "Lending Federal Dollars to States Will Bankrupt Us All"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson responds to the recent proposal from Christopher Edley, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, that the U. S. government stimulate the economy by loaning money to near-bankrupt state governments.
July 6, 2010 "Small Schools Work After All, A Good Study Shows"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson admits he is pleasantly shocked to learn that, despite all that sophisticated criticism of the replacement of large schools with smaller ones, students are more likely to graduate from high school in New York City if they attended one of the small high schools.
June 30, 2010 "U. S. Department of Education Study Measures Impact of Switching Schools, Not Impact of Attending a Charter"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson critiques the recent Mathematica study of charter middle schools released by the U. S. Department of Education, noting that the study was set up in such a way that it could not possibly tell us much about charter schools.
June 26, 2010 "School Vouchers in DC Produce Gains in Both Test Scores and Graduation Rates"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the recently released Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report.
June 23, 2010 "Virtual Education and Common Core Standards"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about whether common standards create economies of scale for virtual learning products.
June 16, 2010 "Bang for the Buck from Race to the Top"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about why $4 billion in prize money is causing so many states to enact reforms and whether those reforms will stick.
June 15, 2010 "Obama Overturns Roosevelt: What was once forbidden is now required"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson argues that the positive ideas behind the Race to the Top initiative were undermined by the Administration’s inclusion of an extraordinary, undemocratic requirement that teacher unions support state initiatives.
June 10, 2010 "State Proficiency Standards by the Numbers"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson delves further into the data behind his and Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón's recent Education Next article on state proficiency strandards.
June 8, 2010 "Teacher Bailout Bill, R.I.P.?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about the belt-tightening that will hopefully take place if the $23 billion edujobs bill dies in Congress.
June 2, 2010 "Teacher Effectiveness in Classroom Unrelated to the College Teacher Attended"
A new PEPG study finds that a teacher’s effectiveness at lifting student performance in reading and math is unrelated to the preparation teachers have received, whether it is the college they attended, or whether they received a major in education, or earned a master’s degree. Press Release Available Here
May 28, 2010 "Will Technology Grow or Shrink the Achievement Gap?"
In his commentary on PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson's Saving Schools, Jay Matthews doubts that he will find any time soon “something of the new electronic era that significantly increases achievement in reading and writing for all kids.” Peterson responds in this Education Next Blog Post.
May 24, 2010 "It’s the Old Teachers, not the Beginning Teachers, who are Well Paid"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson wonders who is the teachers union in Florida protecting with all of its political power? Is it the poorly paid, beginning teacher whose salary teacher unions work hard to enhance and protect? Or is it that of the old-timers who capture organizational power and use it for their own purposes?
May 21, 2010 "Is New York City’s Decision to End Social Promotion Beginning to Work?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson notes that when Joel Klein became the chancellor of the New York City schools, one of his first actions, back in 2004, was to end social promotion in third grade. With the latest NAEP reading results just in, we now have some longer term basis for assessing that effectiveness of that policy.
May 14, 2010 "Florida’s Class-Size Reduction Mandate Did Not Improve Student Achievement"
A new PEPG study finds that Florida’s 2002 constitutional amendment mandating a reduction in the size of classes in school districts throughout the state had no discernible impact upon student achievement, either positive or negative. Press Release Available Here
May 12, 2010 "Will the Common Core Standards Set the Bar High Enough?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about how state proficiency standards in reading and math have changed over time and whether the Common Core standards effort will lead to higher expectations for students.
May 10, 2010 "Education Next Report Raises Questions about "Race to the Top" Winners"
A report by PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and PEPG Research Fellow Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón shows that standards in most states remain far below those of the proficiency standard set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Meanwhile, the findings conclude that the U.S. Department of Education rewarded two states that have historically implemented among the lowest standards in the country—Tennessee and Delaware—with highly competitive Race to the Top (RttT) funds.
May 3, 2010 "Why Is Race to the Top Rewarding States With Low Proficiency Standards?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about why Tennessee and Delaware, which received very low scores in a new evaluation of state proficiency standards, nonetheless were the big winners of round 1 of Race to the Top.
May 3, 2010 "Adaptive Learning: Putting an Idea into Practice at the School of One"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson writes about his recent visit with those setting up "the School of One" at a New York City middle school, allowing him to see how new technologies that help teachers adapt to each student’s learning level actually work in practice.
April 30, 2010 "Educational Research: Getting Better—and More Powerful"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses randomized field trials and the impact experimental research can have on educational intervention.
April 21, 2010 "Do U.S. Students Spend Enough Time Learning?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about whether American kids need a longer school day, a longer school year, more time on task, or more customized learning experiences.
April 20, 2010 "The Case for an Alternative Masters Degree in New York"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson writes about David Steiner's persuading the New York Board of Regents to consider giving Teach for America and similar organizations the ability to offer their own master’s degree programs.
April 19, 2010 EdWeek Publishes “Finding the Student’s ‘Price Point’” by Paul E. Peterson
Students have their own version of the price point—the material they are ready to learn. If teachers repeat familiar material, bored students will stare out the window or practice their spitball skills. Conversely, teachers who introduce excessively advanced material will leave their students confused and dissatisfied.
Read the full article, available here.
April 16, 2010 "News from Florida: Can teacher unions become a third political party?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson examines the reasons behind Governor Crist's veto of the merit pay bill in Florida, and whether this is part of his plan to run as a third party candidate for the open Senateseat.
April 15, 2010 "Hurrah for Middlebury’s Venture into Virtual Language Instruction"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses Middlebury College's announcement that it is creating online foreign language courses for high school students.
April 12, 2010 "Florida Governor Vetoes School Reform Bill"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about why Florida governor Charlie Crist vetoed a bill passed by the legislature that said that teachers should be paid based on performance and districts should be able to dismiss ineffective teachers more easily.
March 29, 2010 Associated Press Reviews Saving Schools
“’Saving Schools’ brings numerous aspects of education history out of the clouds and into focus with excellent context and background. And it’s an enjoyable read.” Laura Impellizzeri, Associated Press
PEPG Director Awarded APSA Book Award
Paul E. Peterson was awarded the Martha Derthick Best Book Award for The Price of Federalism. The award is presented to the author of a book published at least ten years ago that has made a lasting contribution to the study of federalism and intergovernmental relations.
March 25, 2010 "What We Can Learn from Utah’s Open High"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson hopes that Utah's Open High School will someday provide the kind of virtual schooling he envisions in his book Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning.
March 23, 2010 "Will NCLB be reauthiriozed this year?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about whether Republicans are likely to work with Democrats on reauthorization.
March 22, 2010 "Can an Education Bill Save the Obama Presidency?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson predicts an education bill will help to improve the public's opinion of the Obama Administration.
March 16, 2010 "A Lot to Learn from Catholic Basketball"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson highlights the lessons that can be learned from Catholic schools.
March 16, 2010 "Saving Schools: From Horace Mann to Virtual Learning"
Paul E. Peterson’s new book traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman.
For more information, see savingschools.net Press Release
March 16, 2010 "Charter Schools and Student Performance"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the Obama administration's revision of NCLB and responds to critics of school choice.
March 15, 2010 "Obama’s Education Strategy Makes Good Political Sense, But to Boost High School Graduation Rates, Something Bolder is Needed"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson encourages President Obama to takeone step further in his quest to raise high school graduation rates.
March 9, 2010 "We Need Fewer Teachers, Not More"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson explains how emerging technologies will allow us to do more with less.
March 5, 2010 "The New Normal for Federal Education Spending"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about whether the federal share of education spending is likely to remain at 15 percent and whether the $1 billion bonus for reauthorizing ESEA this year is likely to be awarded.
March 4, 2010 "A Virtual Race to the Top"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson points out what he feels is escaping the attention of Race to the Top policymakers.
March 2, 2010 "Diane Ravitch on 'the Nature of Markets'"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson critiques Diane Ravitch's new book.
February 25, 2010 "Education Reform: From Congress to Classrooms"
PEPG Deputy Director Martin West moderates one of the panels at the Harvard Journal on Legislation 2010 Symposium, hosted at Harvard Law School.
February 23, 2010 "Choice and Residential Segregation"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about a new Fordham Institute report identifying 2800 public schools that only prosperous kids can attend. A more choice-based public school system, an idea endorsed in a new Brookings Institution report, would provide more opportunities for poor kids to attend better schools, they note.
February 8, 2010 "What’s Next in Education: Common Ground or Battle Ground?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses two recent education reports, and what each could signal about the education policy debate.
February 2, 2010 "Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education"
The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings releases a report on rethinking the federal role in education. Its authors include PEPG director Paul E. Peterson and PEPG research affiliate Jay P. Greene. Executive Summary Full Report
January 24, 2010 "Obama is Getting the Message"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson notes the seeming increase in attention the Obama Administration is paying to education, including reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, and the benefits that may come from it.
January 21, 2010 "Washington Post Wrong in Calling RttT the Largest Federal Education Expenditure"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses how the Obama Administration has seemingly succeeded in persuading the allegedly skeptical, tough-minded reporters in Washington that RttT is the biggest federal education program ever mounted, even though it is not.
January 20, 2010 "If Only Obama Had Made Himself the Education President. . ."
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson suggests the election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate just one year to the day after Barack Obama took the oath of office tells us that something has gone wrong with the President’s governing strategy.
January 19, 2010 "How Much Teacher Unions Spend in Your State"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the power teacher unions wield, and the hefty cash box that allows them to wield it. His post includes data on how much teacher unions spend in each state.
2009
December 8, 2009 "Technological Innovation is Our Best and Final Hope for Saving High Quality Math and Science Education"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses why the United States needs to begin growing its own creative talent by educating the best of our young people in science, math, and cognitive science skills from an early age.
December 4, 2009 "Biggest Spender in Politics: The NEA"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about what the National Education Association is buying with its campaign contributions, which total $56.3 million and exceed the campaign contributions made by any other organization in America.
December 3, 2009 "Is the Decline of the Mainstream Press Bad for Education?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses a report issued by the Brookings Institution that says education is the topic of only 1.4 percent of news coverage by television, radio, newspapers and news web sites.
December 3, 2009 "Race to the Top Versus the Money Chase"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the NEA's $56.3 million in campaign contributions in 2007 and 2008.
November 19, 2009 "Election Postmortem"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about what the results of the 2009 off-year elections mean for education.
November 4, 2009 "Will Congress Reroute the Preschool Juggernaut?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about a bill passed by the House that would send $8 billion to states to boost the quality of preschools and expand the number of preschool spots for disadvantaged children.
November 2, 2009 "Stimulating Stagnation in Education"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the New York Times report in which the Obama Administration admits that over half of the jobs it created or saved by its stimulus package were in the field of education.
October 29, 2009 "Voters Choose Neighborhood Schools over Socioeconomic Diversity"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about Wake County, North Carolina, where voters earlier this month elected new school board members who have pledged to undo the county’s controversial policy of assigning students to schools based on income (to achieve diversity).
Octoberber 23, 2009 "In Memoriam: Theodore Sizer"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson remembers Ted Sizer and his impact on the field of education.
October 22, 2009 "The Nobel Committee Isn’t the Only One Giving Speculative Prizes"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about wishful thinking in the education reform community. Do school reformers need to temper their enthusiasm about the reform du jour?
October 21, 2009 "Instead of Creating Charters, Just Incarcerate the Students"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses a recentMassachusetts state commission solution to the high school drop-out problem.
October 19, 2009 "Nobel Prize Winner Elinor Ostrom and Her Theory of Co-Production"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the selection of political scientist Elinor Ostrom for a Nobel prize in economics.
October 14, 2009 "Will Michelle Rhee Triumph?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about education politics in Washington, D.C., where Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee recently fired 229 teachers.
October 8, 2009 "Will the Federal Role in Education Double?"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. discuss Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent speech, the future of federal education spending, and making NCLB’s successor tighter about ends and looser about means.
October 1, 2009 "Charter Schools Narrow Achievement Gaps in New York City"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about Caroline Hoxby’s random assignment study of student achievement in charter schools in New York City.
September 25, 2009 "Liberating Learning"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the latest book by political scientists Terry Moe and John Chubb.
September 24, 2009 "What Congress Is Not Working On"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. gab about NCLB this week, and consider whether the law will be reauthorized by 2014, which is the deadline for all students to achieve proficiency.
September 24, 2009 "How Much Support Is There for Merit Pay?"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson notes that opinion on merit pay has yet to consolidate in one direction or another, as a lot of people have yet to make up their mind.
September 17, 2009 "Charter Schools, Unions, and Linking Teachers with Student Achievement Data"
In this Education Next Podcast, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. discuss the week’s education news, including an announcement that a charter school in Massachusetts has signed a collective bargaining agreement with its teachers, an agreement that includes merit pay.
September 16, 2009 "The Lost Art of Book Reviewing: Editors Defend School Money Trials"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Deputy Director Martin West and Director Paul E. Peterson defend their book School Money Trials and discuss the state of the academic book review.
September 14, 2009 "When it Comes to Supporting NCLB, It’s the Way You Ask the Question That Counts"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses how, in polls, the way you ask the question can sometimes determine the answer you get.
September 11, 2009 "Polls Seem to Differ on Charters, But In Fact They Agree"
In this Education Next Blog Post, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson explains why according to the Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, 64 percent of all Americans “favor the idea of charters” while according to the Ednext poll, only 39 percent “support the formation of charter schools.”
September 9, 2009 "What the Public Thinks of Public Schools"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses the latest results from the Education Next-PEPG Survey and what they reveal about the public's knowledge and opinion of public schools.
September 9, 2009 Crossing the Finish Line PEPG Deputy Director Martin West talks with Matthew Chingos about the recently published Crossing the Finish Line, of which Chingos was a co-author.
September 3, 2009 "Health Lessons from Schools"
In this New York Post Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses how lessons learned from our public education system could be useful in the debate regarding the creation of a public option in health-care insurance.
August 31, 2009 Swaying Public Opinion
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson talks with Deputy Director Martin West about what it takes to change public opinion about reforms like charter schools.
For more on this topic, please see “The Persuadable Public” in the Fall 2009 issue of Education Next.
August 26, 2009 "Edward Kennedy, Lionized Senator, Dies of Cancer"
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson acknowledges the key role the late Senator Edward Kennedy played in passing the No Child Left Behind Act Read the Article
May 19 , 2009 "Educating the Public"
PEPG Research Affiliate William G. Howell and PEPG Deputy Director Martin R. West release findings from the Education Next—PEPG Survey showing that when provided with accurate information, public support for increased spending on schools and teacher salaries declines Read the Research Article View the Press Release
March 16, 2009 "Sustaining Progress in Times of Fiscal Crisis"
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson & Deputy Director Martin R. West Release New Report Commissioned by Florida State Board of Education Providing Blueprint for State Response to Fiscal Crisis.
View the Press Release for the report.
March 12 , 2009 Discussion on the Likely Termination of the Washington, D.C., Voucher Program
Paul E. Peterson, PEPG Director and Harvard government professor, along with fellow member of Hoover’s Task Force on K–12 Education Terry Moe comment on the controversy surrounding the likely termination of the Washington, D.C., voucher program. Moe and Peterson discuss why vouchers are important for students, particularly disadvantaged ones; why many teachers and Democrats do not like the voucher program; why Democrats voted to end the voucher program; and why private schools work best for disadvantaged students.
February 19, 2009 "Penalizing Schools That Succeed"
In this New York Post Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson discusses his recent study, conducted with Research Fellow Matthew M. Chingos, which finds that Philadelphia School District students at schools run by for-profit firms performed better in math and in reading than those students attending schools run by nonprofits.
February 11, 2009 "Report: Privatized, Edison Schools outperforming non-profit run schools" PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson speaks with WHYY FM about his recent study on Philadelphia Schools Listen to the Podcast Read the article
February 10, 2009 "Impact of For-Profit and Nonprofit Management on Student Achievement:
The Philadelphia Intervention, 2002-2008"
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Research Fellow Matthew M. Chingos release a new study on the impact of for-profit and non-profit management on student achievement in Philadelphia.
View the Press Release for this study.
January 29, 2009 Obama's Education Stimulus Critiqued
Paul E. Peterson, PEPG Director and Harvard government professor says stimulus needs to emphasize productivity. Read the transcript
August 12, 2008 President Bush Announces Intent to Nominate Paul E. Peterson to the Board of Directors of the National Board of Education Sciences
President Bush announced his intention to nominate eight
individuals to serve as Members of the Board of Directors of the
National Board of Education Sciences (NBES), including PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson. Press Release
August 12, 2008 "The 2008 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion"
PEPG Deputy Director William Howell, Research Affiliate Martin West, and Director Paul E. Peterson discuss the results of the 2008 Education Next—PEPG Survey in the the Fall 2008 issue of Education Next. View the Press Release for this study.
May 16-17 , 2008 The Program on Education Policy and Governance Hosts Conference on Economic Incentives: Do They Work in Education?
Insights and Findings from Behavioral Research
CESifo Conference Center, Munich
To explore the use of economic incentives in education, CESifo Munich and the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) of Harvard University are hosting jointly a conference in Munich Germany on 16-17 May 2008. Building on the success of a previous joint conference whose proceedings are just published by MIT Press, the scientific organizers, Paul E. Peterson (Harvard) and Ludger Woessmann (Munich), hope to again bring scholarly perspectives together from both sides of the Atlantic.
November 7, 2007 "Educational Rewards"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and PEPG Research Fellow Matthew Chingos present their argument that the profit motive improves schools as their research shows students in Philadelphia attending schools managed by for-profit firms are further ahead than are students at schools left in the hands of the school district.
November 1, 2007 "For-Profit and Non-Profit School Management: The Philadelphia Experiment "
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and Research Fellow Matthew M. Chingos release a new study on the impact of for-profit and non-profit management on student achievement in Philadelphia. View the Press Release for this study.
July 30, 2007 "What Americans Think about Their Schools "
PEPG Deputy Director William Howell, Research Affiliate Martin West, and Director Paul E. Peterson discuss the results of the 2007 Education Next—PEPG Survey in the the Fall 2007 issue of Education Next. View the Press Release for this study.
July 24, 2007 "School Choice and Racial Balance "
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson presents his argument that, to achieve racial balance, parents should be allowed to choose their child's school, and that
oversubscribed schools should be allowed to admit students by lot.
February 22, 2007 "The Philadelphia Story"
In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson takes on the recent RAND Corporation study on the private management of schools in Philadelphia. The Op-Ed coincides with the Philadelphia Accountability Review Council's report on private management.
February 8, 2007 "Keeping Education Accountable"
PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson comments on educational accountability in this Harvard Crimson op-ed.
2006
December 19 , 2006 PEPG Identified as Source of Most Influential Research
PEPG school voucher research has been identified as one of the 13 most influential studies shaping education policy over the past 10 years, according to the recent Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center report, "Influence: A Study of the Factors Shaping Education Policy." EPE also identified the PEPG-sponsored Education Next: A Journal of Opinion and Research as one of the ten most influential sources of information on education policy. Full press release
November 20, 2006 Paul E. Peterson Named to Head Florida Education Transition Team
Florida Governor-Elect Charlie Crist announced the five additional of nine total Citizen Review Group leaders that will spearhead an agency-by-agency fact-finding mission aimed at identifying opportunities and challenges within each operation. PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson will head the Education transition team, covering the Department of Education and Agency for Persons with
Disabilities. Full press release
September 28, 2006 School Ratings Under NCLB and Florida's A+ Accountability Plan
Contrasting the accountabilty provisions of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law with his brother's plan in Florida, Sam Dillon of the New York Times discusses the recent Education Next article, "Is Your Child's School Effective? Don't Rely on NCLB to Tell You," by Paul E. Peterson and Marty West. "As 2 Bushes Try to Fix Schools, Tools Differ"
Sam Dillon - New York Times
April 2006 Market Forces: Professor Paul E. Peterson's Influential Protégés Dale Mezzacappa of the Education Sector profiles the PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson in the context of his recruiting and mentoring a new generation of education scholars. Access the full report.
March 29 and April 5, 2006 Taking on the Teacher Unions In a pair of Op-Eds appearing in the Boston Globe and the NY Daily News, Frederick Hess and Martin West comment on the proposed education reforms of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and the challenge of overhauling the teachers union contract in New York City.
March 1 , 2006 Spring 2006 Issue of Education Next Is Available Online
- Access the full issue.
- Read the press release about Brian Jacob and Lars Lefgren's research article on the accuracy of principals' assessments of teacher performance. Education Week also covered this story: "Study Backs Principals as Effective in Evaluating Teachers" [subscription required].
- Read the press release for Jay Greene and Marcus Winter's research article on the effect of Florida's Retention Policy.
- Read the press release for Michael Podgursky's feature on teacher quality and teacher pay.
September 28, 2005 Erasing Inequality In this New York Sun Op-Ed, PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson responds to a front page New York Times article ("As Test Scores Jump, Raleigh Credits Integration by Income," Alan Finder, Sept. 25, 2005, page 1) in which it was reported that students from Raleigh, NC, made substantial test score gains as a result of a school desegregation policy implemented a decade ago.
June 7 , 2005 A Chance to Escape
In his NY Times Op-Ed column, John Tierney discusses the Florida Supreme Court case in which the plaintiffs are attempting to end Florida's Opportunity Scholarship program for students in failing public schools. In shaping his argument in favor of the voucher program, Tierney references PEPG Director Paul E. Peterson and PEPG Research Fellow Marty West's recent research paper about Florida's accountability system, "The Efficacy of Choice Threats within School Accountability Systems." "A Chance to Escape" (free subscription required) • PDF of PEPG Study
May 6, 2005 New PEPG Research Papers on Principal Preparation
Frederick Hess and Andrew Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute have authored two new research papers on principal preparation for PEPG. In the first paper (PEPG 05-02: "Learning to Lead? What Gets Taught in Principal Preparation Programs"), they find little evidence that principal preparation programs are introducing students to a broad range of management, organizational, or administrative theory and practice. This paper also appears in the Summer 2005 issue of Education Next under the title, "The Accidental Principal." PDF of the study • Education Next article• Education Next press release
In the second paper (PEPG 05-03: "Textbook Leadership? An Analysis of Leading Books Used in Principal Preparation") they analyze widely adopted education administration textbooks and report that these texts paid little attention to accountability, efficiency, or how to make critical personnel decisions. Moreover, the books provided little guidance on how to use accountability as a management tool or use resources more efficiently. PDF of the study
April 28, 2005 Sue First, Teach Later In this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Paul E. Peterson and Martin West discuss the recent decision of the National Education Assocation and others to sue the federal government on the basis that the No Child Left Behind Act is an unfunded mandate. Download a PDF of the Op-Ed
April 5, 2005 "The Efficacy of Choice Threats within School Accountability Systems: Results from Legislatively Induced Experiments" In the first independent study to examine the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on the test-score performance of individual students, Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson found that key choice provisions of the Florida A+ Accountability Plan were more effective than NCLB's at promoting student achievement gains. Read the full press release • Download a PDF of the study
February 22, 2005 Wage Compression Driving Top Women Graduates from Teaching In the Spring issue of Education Next, Caroline Hoxby, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the Economics of Education Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, presents new research on decline of teacher quality - why America's top women college graduates are not teaching. Read the full press release • Access this Article
2004
December 14, 2004 Nationwide Study Shows More Charter School Students Proficient on State Exams than Public School Peers Nationwide, a higher percentage of students in established charter schools are judged proficient on the state reading and math examinations than in the nearest traditional public school. If a charter school has been operating for more than nine years, ten percent more students are scoring at or above the proficiency level in both subjects.
This finding comes from a new study by Caroline Hoxby of Harvard University that compares the performance of charter school students with students in the nearest traditional public school. Ninety-nine percent of all elementary students in charter schools are included in the study. Read the full press release • Download a PDF of the study
September 24, 2004 PEPG Named Key Partner in First Federally-Funded Research Center on School Choice
PEPG, together with other leading institutions, will establish the federally funded Center on School Choice, Competition and Achievement.
The Center will receive a $10 million dollar, five-year grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, the main research component of the U.S. Department of Education. Under the grant’s terms, PEPG, under the direction of Paul E. Peterson, will examine the impacts of school vouchers on public schools, the effects of charter schools and private schools on student achievement, and the effects of school accountability systems on political competition within school districts Read the full press release
2003
June 12, 2003 Latest Results from New York City School Voucher Research: African Americans in Private Schools Score Higher
New analyses of an evaluation of a privately funded New York City voucher program show positive effects on the test scores of African Americans, report PEPG researchers Paul E. Peterson and William Howell. The latest findings show higher levels of performance in private schools in a wide variety of statistical estimations. The results are of special interest because they are obtained from a randomized field trial of the kind often undertaken in medical research but seldom used in the study of educational innovations. Peterson and Howell looked at the evidence 120 different ways. In 108 of the estimations employed, significantly positive impacts for African Americans were discerned. The few results that did not register significant effects were based on less rigorous research methods. Read the full press release
2002
February 19, 2002 Latest Results from New York City School Voucher Research: African Americans in Private Schools Score Higher
New analyses of an evaluation of a privately funded New York City voucher program show positive effects on the test scores of African Americans, report PEPG researchers Paul E. Peterson and William Howell. The latest findings show higher levels of performance in private schools in a wide variety of statistical estimations. The results are of special interest because they are obtained from a randomized field trial of the kind often undertaken in medical research but seldom used in the study of educational innovations. Peterson and Howell looked at the evidence 120 different ways. In 108 of the estimations employed, significantly positive impacts for African Americans were discerned. The few results that did not register significant effects were based on less rigorous research methods. Read the full press release
