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Shanker Blog
On Teacher Evaluation: Slow Down And Get It Right
Morgan Polikoff and Matt Di Carlo argue that full implementation of new teacher evaluations must proceed more slowly and carefully.
Proposed National Civics Framework Shows Great Promise
New York City teacher Stephen Lazar reviews the first draft of a framework for civics standards released by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
A Quick Look At “Best High School” Rankings
Rankings of the best high schools aren't always telling us what we think they're telling us.
The Relationship Between Teacher Salaries And Teacher Salary Schedules
A new NCTQ report on teacher salaries during the recession raises a few important points about the relationship between teacher pay and salary schedules.
About Value-Added And “Junk Science”
Calling value-added "junk science" obscures the real issues surrounding the use of these methods in education.
‘A Single Garment Of Destiny’ For American And Bangladeshi Workers
Recent factory explosions in Bangladesh and Texas illustrate how the future of American workers and their unions is tied those those of other nations' workers.
How Important Is Undergraduate Teaching In Public R1 Universities? How Important Should It Be?
Ian Robinson (U. of Michigan) examines the disparities in pay between tenure-track and nontenure-track university faculty, and the reasons behind them.
Can The Common Core Standards Reverse The “Rising Tide Of Mediocrity”?
Thirty years ago, as A Nation at Risk warned of mediocrity and “Cultural Literacy” called for building knowledge, Al Shanker saw rigor as an antidote to risk
What's New
Good Schools Seminar March 2013: Doing Assessment Right
The Good Schools seminar series is aimed at creating constructive conversations among AFT leaders, administrators, education policy experts, and academics on the ways in which union policies and programs affect the ability of schools and school staffs to maximize student achievement. This seminar on “Doing Assessment Right” was held on March 12-13, 2013 in Washington, D.C. [...]
Spending by Major Charter Management Organizations in Three States
Do charter schools do more – get better results – with less? If you ask this question, you’ll probably get very strong answers, ranging from the affirmative to the negative, often depending on the person’s overall view of charter schools. The reality, however, is that we really don’t know. There’s still relatively little solid empirical [...]
Does Money Matter in Education?
Over the past few years, due to massive budget deficits, governors, legislators and other elected officials are having to slash education spending. As a result, incredibly, there are at least 30 states in which state funding for 2011 is actually lower than in 2008. In some cases, including California, the amounts are over 20 percent [...]
Policy Brief: The Evidence on Charter Schools and Test Scores
Charter schools are among the most controversial issues in education today, with much of the debate focused on whether they produce better testing results than comparable regular public schools. Too often, these discussions either rely on a tiny handful of studies, or on raw, cross-sectional testing results, which are not valid measures of school effects. [...]
A Discussion on the Challenges Facing Government, Public Services and Public Sector Collective Bargaining in the U.S.
Based on a transcript of a seminar in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute entitled “The War Against Public Service and Public Employee Unions.” On June 8, 2011, leaders of U.S. public employee unions met in Washington, D.C. to discuss the crisis facing government and public services in the U.S. and to consider strategies and [...]
Worthy of Attention
Democracy
Egypt Suppresses Workers' Voices
“[Egyptian president Mohammed] Morsi is clearly preparing a systematic crackdown against Egypt’s union movement, against the right to strike, against the right to organize and against union plurality.”The Global State of Workers' Rights
A report from Freedom House, with help from the Shanker Institute, documents the state of labor rights around the world.
Education
Bad Advocacy Research Abounds on School Reform
Economist Steven Glazerman discusses the common misuse of NAEP data in policy advocacy.A Wealth of Words
E.D. Hirsch, Jr. argues that the key to increasing upward mobility is expanding vocabulary.Getting the Facts Right on Pre-K and the President's Pre-K Proposal
This policy report clears up some common misconceptions about preschool’s effectiveness and benefits, particularly in regards to the Obama administration’s recent fact sheet on investing in early education.
Labor
The Social Contract in an Era of Precarious Work
Employment relations have become more precarious—more uncertain, insecure, and risky—in all industrial societies over the past quarter century.Three Reasons Even Right-Wing Republicans Should Like Unions
Your chances of surviving a hospital stay after a myocardial infarction – also known as a heart attack – are higher if your nurses are in a union than if they’re not.