Brookings on education

The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings released two reports this week: (1) the 2009 Brown Center Report on American education, "How Well Are American Students Learning?" and (2) a proposal to create America's Teacher Corps (ATC) through federal legislation.

The Brown Center Report:

• Examines national test data going back to 1971 from the
  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
• Compares 1989 test scores of more than 1,000 schools to the same schools' scores in 2009
• Compares test scores of conversion charter schools from 1986, when they operated as traditional public schools, to those from 2008, when they operated as charter schools

Membership in the proposed ATC would consist of K-12 public school teachers qualified through district or state evaluation systems. ATC would complement the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), a federal program with similar goals, and its proposed replacement, the Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund provided for in the FY2011 Budget for elementary and secondary education; see under Excellent Instructional Teams. The authors of the report conclude that:

the conditions of teacher employment have to be restructured to recruit and select more promising teachers, provide opportunities for potentially good teachers to realize their potential, keep the very best teachers in the profession, and motivate them to serve in locations where students have the highest needs.

The 2009 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning? Jan. 2010, released March 17, 2010
      Report (pdf, 36pp/6.5MB)
      Summary
      News release

America’s Teacher Corps, March 15, 2010
      Report (pdf, 16pp/440kB)
      Executive summary