Report highlights successful education reform efforts largely missed by media and policymakers.
Contact:
Jamie Horwitz
202-549-4921
jhdcpr@starpower.net
Patrick J. McEwan
(781) 283-2987
pmcewan@wellesley.edu
BOULDER, CO (November 29) – A recent report from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution examines three school organization reforms that may yield positive results but have not captured the attention of policymakers or the media. The report concludes that at least two these less-publicized organizational reforms deserve greater attention in the education reform discussion. Think Twice think tank review project reviewer Patrick J. McEwan of Wellesley College finds the report to offer a solid, fair presentation of the research. McEwan’s review was published today by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education.
The report, Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement, by Brian A. Jacob and Jonah E. Rockoff, applies cost-benefit analyses to three reform proposals: starting schools later in the morning; replacing junior high or middle schools with a K-8 grade configuration; and increasing teacher specialization by grade and subject. It draws on research to calculate improvements in achievement that can be associated with each reform, finding the first two to be associated with positive outcomes. The report then projects the potential impact on the future earnings of students.
McEwan praises the report for using sound research to judge the value of each of the three considered policy proposals. “The report’s discussion of effects is thorough and nuanced, and it draws from high-quality empirical studies conducted in the last several years,” McEwan writes. The benefit estimates are, however, more speculative because they rely on assumptions about how test scores relate to future earnings. Yet, although, the projected costs of each reform are the weakest element of the research, according to McEwan, “the report never claims to have identified a ‘correct’ benefit-cost ratio for a particular intervention, and it identifies caveats to the interpretation of the results.”
McEwan also praises the Brookings report for, instead of advocating for simply implementing any of the three policies, taking the logical and prudent next step of calling for more limited pilot studies to develop the evidence related to each of the reforms.
“For example, research suggests that later start-times may have larger effects on more disadvantaged students,” McEwan writes. “Likewise, it may have lower costs in districts that already have a single-tier bus schedule (or slack in their existing use of transportation).” Similarly, the cost of converting to a K-8 configuration will depend on the existing district infrastructure – and the paper recognizes that fact.
“In short, the report’s evidence supports its main conclusion that organizational interventions deserve careful consideration alongside more hotly-debated or popular interventions such as charter schools or computer-assisted instruction,” McEwan concludes.
NEPC director Kevin Welner adds, “The McEwan review shows this report to be the sort of careful, fair presentation of research that helps to advance research and policy discussions. The research base can support sound policymaking when each study is considered in a sound, cautious way and is used to further our overall understanding.”
Find Patrick McEwan’s review on the NEPC website at:
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-organizing-schools
Find Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments, by Brian A. Jacob and Jonah E. Rockoff, on the web at:
The Think Twice think tank review project (http://thinktankreview.org) of the National Education Policy Center is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. It provides the public, policy makers, and the press with timely, academically sound, reviews of selected publications. The project is made possible in part by the support of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.
The mission of the National Education Policy Center is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence. For more information on NEPC, please visit http://nepc.colorado.edu/.
This review is also found on the GLC website at http://www.greatlakescenter.org/.