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Resource Materials - What People in Washington are Reading on Education Policy

This list of general articles about education policy was excerpted from a list compiled by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.  The full list is available at: http://www.aacte.org/Governmental_Relations/whatpeoplearereading.pdf

The Learning Compact Redefined: A Call to Action. A Report of the Commission on the Whole Child (pdf)
March 2007, by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 
[http://www.ascd.org/]
This report frames education within the personalized engagement and nurturing of the whole child, building on his or her capacities for intellectual, social, emotional, physical, and spiritual learning.  It charges over-emphasis on academics and narrowly measured academic achievement as shortchanging youth and limiting their future.  The report calls for a new learning compact that puts children and their learning needs at the center of educational program and resource decisions.

Draft Report of the Commission on 21st Century Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
The final report of this commission has not yet been released, but a draft action plan called for a wide-ranging set of policies that would promote the teaching and learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
For more information, see: http://www.pkal.org/documents/NSBCommission.cfm

America’s Perfect Storm –
Three Forces Changing Our Nation’s Future (pdf)
January 2007, by Educational Testing Service’s Policy Information Center.
[http://www.ets.org/]
This report describes a “perfect storm” of three powerful socioeconomic forces in our society: 1) economic restructuring placing a premium on education and skills, with jobs that require college-educated, highly skilled workers among the fastest growing; 2) inadequate reading and math skills narrowing job opportunities and threatening economic growth; and 3) half our population growth in the next decade coming from new, often low-skilled immigrants.  To counter these trends, the report urges raising learning levels, increasing reading and math skills, and narrowing existing achievement gaps.

College Learning for the New Global Century: A Report from the National Leadership Council for Liberal Education & America’s Promise (pdf)
January 2007, by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
[http://www.aacu.org/]
This report concludes that in today’s global economy college graduates need much more cross-disciplinary knowledge—in science, global cultures, technology, and society; and expanded set of advanced skills, including in communication, teamwork, and analytic reasoning; and much more applying what they have learned to real-world problems.  The report identifies essential aims, learning outcomes, and guiding principles for a 21st century college education and calls on colleges and universities to re-map the curricula so all fields of study help students acquire a set of “essential learning outcomes.”
Print copies available for purchase at: www.aacu.org

The Costs and Benefits of an Excellent Education for All of America’s Children (pdf)
January 2007, by a joint research team.
[http://www.cbcse.org/]
This report demonstrates that investing in five proven strategies to increase high school graduation rates can save billions of dollars per year.  The report estimates cost savings from areas such as increased tax revenues, reductions in crime, and reduced need for public assistance.  The five proven strategies are: Perry Preschool Program, First Things First, class size reduction, Chicago Child-Parent Center Program, and teacher salary increase.

On the Clock: Rethinking the Way Schools Use Time (pdf)
January 2007, by Elena Silva, Education Sector. 
[http://www.educationsector.org/]
This report is a summary of the research on the use of time in school, both in terms of the length of the school day and of the school year.  The author found that extending the right kind of time to students who it most can have benefits, for example in helping to improve learning and to close achievement gaps.  But the preponderance of evidence suggest that the benefits of adding time to the school day or the school year are not certain or universal.

Double the Work: Educating Teen English Language Learners (pdf)
November 2006, by the Center for Applied Linguistics.
[http://www.all4ed.org/]
This report addresses the challenges faced by adolescents with limited English in trying to master high school curricula.  The report identifies six major challenges impeding progress and potential solutions for each: 1) lack of common criteria to identify and track the progress of ELLs; 2) inappropriate assessments; 3) inadequate educator capacity for improving literacy education; 4) lack of program options within NCLB; 5) inadequate use of research-based instructional practices; and 6) lack of a strong and coherent research agenda to address problems of adolescent ELLs.

A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education – Report of the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (pdf)
September 2006, by a commission appointed by the Secretary of Education.
[http://www.ed.gov/]
This report argued that America’s colleges are not well prepared for future challenges.  The Commission recommended: 1) improving academic preparation and making financial aid available; 2) simplifying the student financial aid system and better managing its costs and performance; 3) cultivating a robust culture of accountability and transparency with new systems of data measurement and public databases, greater focus on student learning and a more outcome-focused accreditation system; 4) collegiate continuous innovation and quality improvement; 5) targeted investments toward math, science, and foreign languages; and 6) a culture of lifelong learning to increase understanding of the value of a college education.  Since the release of this report, Secretary Spellings has announced and action plan and convened stakeholders to help carry out recommendations in the three areas of accessibility, affordability, and accountability.

Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence, September 2006, by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
[http://my.nctm.org/]
This report is intended as a catalyst for discussions and decision-making on curricula frameworks at the state and local school district levels. It focuses solely on curriculum, not on teaching strategies or tools to help students learn. For each grade level the report offers paragraph-long descriptions of concepts the authors regard as essential.  The report addresses the criticism that the math taught in the United States is “a mile wide and an inch deep,” where teachers bounced from topic to topic, without encouraging mastery of the most important concepts.
Available for purchase at: http://my.nctm.org/eresources/article_summary.asp?URI=JRME2006-11-469a&from=B

Teaching Inequality – How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality (pdf)
June 2006, by the Education Trust.
[http://www2.edtrust.org/]
This report expands on a study of the school districts of Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee in which researchers collected data on teacher distribution and identified patterns.  In each case they found large differences between the qualifications of teachers in the highest-poverty and highest-minority schools and teachers serving in schools with few minority and low-income students.  Drawing from that experience, the report: 1) describes teacher distribution patterns nationally; 2) summarizes evidence about how differences in teacher quality affect student achievement; 3) explains the NCLB requirement that all groups of children receive their fair share of strong teachers; 4) shares key lessons from the pilot states and districts that may be useful to others, and 5) sets forth strategies to address this problem.