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Contact: Review: Solid Brookings report highlights little-noticed school reforms EAST LANSING, Mich. (Nov. 29, 2011) — At a time when policymakers and media are fixated on school "reforms" like charter schools and virtual learning, the Brookings Institution has released a report examining school organizational reforms that should be more widely considered. The report, entitled "Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement" and released by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, 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. The Brookings report found that:
Wellesley College economics professor Patrick J. McEwan reviewed the Brookings report for the Think Twice think tank review project. The review was produced by the National Education Policy Center with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. McEwan praises the report for using sound research to judge the value of each of the three considered reform proposals. He writes, "The report's discussion of effects is thorough and nuanced, and it draws from high-quality empirical studies conducted in the last several years." "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. Find Patrick McEwan's review on the Great Lakes Center website at The review is also available on the National Education Policy Center website at: --###-- |
The mission of the Great Lakes Center is to improve public education for all students in the Great Lakes region through the support and dissemination of high quality, academically sound research on education policy and practices. Visit the Great Lakes Center Web Site at: http://www.greatlakescenter.org. |