This article compares the way the United States deals with its low-income gifted students with the methods Finland, Japan, and Singapore implement for these pupils. Four components of gifted education were used to compare these nations: the methods for identifying gifted students, each country's gifted education policy, the educational…

This article compares the way the United States deals with its low-income gifted students with the methods Finland, Japan, and Singapore implement for these pupils. Four components of gifted education were used to compare these nations: the methods for identifying gifted students, each country's gifted education policy, the educational…

In times of growing economic inequality, improving equity in education becomes more urgent. While some countries and economies that participate in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have managed to build education systems where socio-economic status makes less of a difference to students' learning and well-being, every…

This is the second in a series of policy notes and related publications exploring prospects for developing indicators of teaching quality. The first examined federal databases that include information about teachers, demonstrating that almost none of the measures in these datasets provides indication of teaching quality. This policy note takes the…

This report presents key findings from "Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement," by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Andrew E. Scanlan, and published by Princeton University Press in 2019. American education has long been plagued by excellence gaps among the young people who make it into the highest levels…

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic impeded children's skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic's effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature with new evidence from German longitudinal time-use…

In "Why Knowledge Matters," influential scholar E. D. Hirsch, Jr., addresses critical issues in contemporary education reform and shows how cherished truisms about education and child development have led to unintended and negative consequences. Hirsch, author of "The Knowledge Deficit," draws on recent findings in neuroscience…

Economic inequality is high and rising in a number of developed countries, including in the United Kingdom and the United States. There are growing concerns that this may have negative implications for equality of opportunity, and the extent to which social disadvantage is transmitted across generations. It is widely believed that providing…

The Kalamazoo Promise, announced in 2005, is an innovative college-scholarship program available to every graduate of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Public Schools. Programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise, which is being emulated in cities across the United States, open new avenues for the acquisition of human capital regardless of income level or…

To achieve President Obama's stated goal of including all of America's students in leading the world in education, the administration has designed a blueprint for a reenvisioned federal role in education through the reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA"). The new "ESEA" will ensure…

It is critical that teachers and administrators seek out and serve the invisible children in their classrooms and schools. When they acknowledge the condition of homeless and foster children, they can begin to address their unique learning needs and close their learning gaps. Based on definitions provided by the McKinney-Vento Act, some schools…

For five years the major school reform agenda in America has been the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was part of the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Now ESEA is up for another reauthorization by Congress, and everyone is wondering what is going to happen next. One could argue that there is…

The Fifth National Forum of the Coalition for Community Schools (Baltimore, Maryland, June 16, 2006) provided a historic opportunity for participants to hear two of America's most distinguished educators, Drs. James Comer and Edmund Gordon. These giants in their fields engaged in an animated and thought-provoking exchange on the educational…

For decades, educators and researchers have observed practices of educational inequality in U.S. schools. In a multicultural democracy, schooling without educational equality constitutes injustice. This article explores the limitation of the current traditional teacher education in preparing highly competent and socially conscious teachers needed…

Teach For America (TFA) was founded in 1989 to address the educational inequities facing children in low-income communities across the United States by expanding the pool of teacher candidates available to the schools those children attend. TFA recruits seniors and recent graduates from colleges around the country, people who are willing to…