American Legislative Exchange Council releases Report Card on American Education

September 1, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

The American Legislative Exchange Council released the Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform today coauthored by yours truly, Andy LeFevre and Dan Lips. Follow the link and check out our rankings of state NAEP performance based on the overall math and reading scores and gains of general education low-income children, and our “poll of polls” grades for K-12 policy in each state.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush penned the foreward. After losing a bet Stanford Political Scientist Terry Moe gave the book a very kind endorsement:

Everyone interested in education reform should read this book. Using a method that—by focusing on the achievement of low-income children—allows for apples-to-apples comparisons across the states, the authors present a treasure trove of eye-opening performance data and arrive at a ranking of state performance that reveals both surprising success and shocking failure. The book is well worth reading for the data alone. But it also offers a good deal more, from research summaries to methodological clarifications to model legislation—and concludes with an insightful discussion of the high-powered reforms that have helped some states out-perform others, and that offer the nation a path to improvement. I should add, finally—and with genuine admiration—that the book is beautifully written and a pleasure to read: something I can rarely say about a data analysis.

JPGB readers will of course realize that this is quite a tribute to Andy and Dan, given your painfully intimate knowledge of my garbled writing. Thanks also to Jeff Reed and Dave Myslinski from ALEC (Jeff is now rocking and rolling at the Foundation for Educational Choice), Jay and my Goldwater Institute comrades.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Be nice though: today is my birthday, which makes me even more emotionally volatile than usual.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the PDF.

2 Comments | research reports | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Governor Daniels vs. Bloat

August 31, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

From the Indy Star:

Daniels cited a national study released a few weeks ago by the Goldwater Institute in Arizona. It found the number of full-time administrators for every 100 students at 189 top U.S. universities had increased by 39 percent from 1993 to 2007.

The study blamed the administrative bloat on subsidies from federal and state governments and suggested that reducing subsidies would force schools to operate more efficiently.

“The role of trustee has never been so critical as it is today,” Daniels said. “But I don’t want to see you at the Statehouse asking for more money.

“Please stay back at the school and find ways to be more efficient with those dollars.”

5 Comments | higher education | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Sneak Preview: Report Card on American Education

August 30, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Later this week the American Legislative Exchange Council will release Report Card on American Education: Ranking State K-12 Performance, Progress and Reform written by yours truly, Dan Lips and Andy LeFevre.

As suggested by the title, we grade each state by their academic performance, their academic gains and their K-12 reform policies. On the later, we use a “poll of polls” technique and average the grades assigned for particular policy areas on academic standards, teacher quality, charter school laws, private choice, digital education etc.

Sneak peak: a B+ was the highest grade.

On the performance and progress, we utilize NAEP with an eye to maximizing comparability  between states. After all, no one can be shocked that Connecticut has higher NAEP scores than Mississippi, given the huge disparities in income between the two states.

We therefore judge each state based on the scores of free and reduced lunch eligible general education students on all four main NAEP exams: 4th grade reading and math, 8th grade reading and math. We use the period for which all 50 states and the District of Columbia have participated in NAEP (2003-2009). Using free or reduced lunch eligibility keeps the income range of students under a known limit, whereas non-free and reduced lunch kids can vary in income from still relatively hardscrabble to billionaires.

We made no effort to control for race or ethnicity despite the well-known existence of racial achievement gaps. This is because we believe that such gaps can in fact be closed. We believe that the gaps exist due to policy and cultural factors, all of which can be changed. Schools in particular are in the business (or should be) of promoting a strong academic culture focused on learning-aka controlling the culture of the school.

You’ve never heard of a racial combat effectiveness gap in the United States Marines Corps because it doesn’t exist. The fact that the Marines are a well-led organization with a strong culture has a great deal to do with that, as does the fact that every Marine is a part of the Corps by choice.

In any case, we do not claim that our NAEP rankings provide perfect comparability  just enormously better comparability  than looking at raw NAEP scores.

So you are dying to know whether your state rocked or sucked wind in the rankings. Calm down- pace yourself!

All will be revealed later in the week.

5 Comments | research reports | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

The Future vs. Bloat

August 25, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Brian Caulfield asks the question at Forbes: should Apple kill the university as we know it? Cites Jay, Brian and Jonathan’s bloat study.

Answer: yes. If they don’t, someone else will.

3 Comments | higher education | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Go see Waiting for Superman!

August 20, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

I had a chance to see a screening of Waiting for Superman yesterday hosted by Expect More Arizona. It was extremely well done, and very moving. When it is released in the theatres in September, I plan to march everyone I can drag to the theatre.

5 Comments | Pass the Popcorn | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Irony Alert!

August 11, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

So the Edujobs bill apparently has a provision designed to keep states like Texas from keeping their rainy day funds dry and use federal bailout funds to maintain current expenditures. Apparently Texas did just that last time, and a number of Congressional Democrats went out of their way to get even with Texas Governor Rick Perry this time around. From EdNews.org:

“Texas is taking money out of the mouths of children and putting it somewhere else,” insisted Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston. “We have language in here to say to the governor of the state of Texas, ‘Don’t fool with money for our children and education.’ ”

I don’t know where to start with this…

Taking money out of the mouths of children? 

Better yet…

Putting it somewhere else?

Perhaps Rep. Jackson Lee got confused by the fact that this bailout is being paid for with a cut in Food Stamps. That’s called “taking food out of the mouths of children.”

Perhaps the Jackson Lee would like to take her foot out of her mouth and stick it…back in her shoe.

1 Comment | school funding | Tagged: , | Permalink
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A Picture Worth a Thousand Words on Why Edujobs was Misguided

August 10, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

So the yellow line just put another $10 billion on the credit card of the red line. Let them eat cake!  From the Rockefeller Institute, hat tip EIA.

3 Comments | school funding | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

The First Education Buzz Carnival is Up

August 4, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Education Buzz Carnival replaces the Carnival of Education, you can check it out here.

Leave a Comment » | blogging | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Canary in a Coal Mine? The College Wage Premium Drops

August 4, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

George Leef on the gap between higher education agitprop and the reality on the ground.

3 Comments | higher education | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

Arizona and Alabama RTTT

August 2, 2010

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

As an Arizonan, this article is quite satisfying to read, not so much because I’m a big fan of RTTT, but because I am proud of the steps Arizona lawmakers took to reform K-12 last session.

Arizona went from second to last in the first round of the RTTT to finalist in the second round, mostly on the strength of the 2010 reforms. Alabama meanwhile continues to languish in education union imposed stasis.

2 Comments | school funding | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by matthewladner

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