3.24.10 – Nick Clark – Higher education in the United States has long been attractive to international students, and universities have historically been able to attract those students on little more than name and reputation alone. However, as smaller, less well-known institutions seek to increase their recruiting

3.20.10 – Using Minnesota as an example, while the teachers' union has consistently opposed legislation that will call for alternative teacher licensure, another of RTTT's many components, legislators of both parties are increasingly alarmed at the unconstitutional nature of the mandates, the loss of state sovereignty

3.19.10 – Andy Smarick – Anyone interested in what to do about America’s most persistently failing schools–and especially those caught up in today’s turnaround craze–should consider Part II of this report a must-read. A MUST-read.

3.17.10 – The place of college in the lives of current and future generations of American families has fun­damentally changed. Once the privilege of a few, college is now a virtual prerequisite for joining and remaining in the ranks of the middle class.

3.14.10 – Higher education is still being shaped by the economic downturn of 2001-2002, when state appropriations to public universities fell markedly. In response, some colleges pushed for greater autonomy, especially freedom to raise tuition and fees.

3.10.10 – In "Helping Americans Help Themselves: Toward a National Single Stop Policy and More Efficient, More Effective Poverty Fighting," Tom Freedman, who is president of Freedman Consulting, LLC and served as a senior advisor to President Clinton, and Michael Weinstein, who is senior vice president of the Robin Hood Foundation, identify the key problems with today's poverty fighting system:

3.6.10 – Lindsey M. Burke – Federal spending on early childhood education and care exceeds $25 billion annually. President Obama and other proponents of taxpayer-funded universal preschool want to add $10 billion as an incentive for the states

3.6.10 – Andrew P. Kelly, Chad Aldeman – In the throes of the recent economic downturn, the nation’s leaders have repeatedly pointed to America’s higher education system as one of the key engines that will drive the country’s recovery in the years to come.

(Cambridge, MA) – As Massachusetts educators celebrate a decrease in the statewide dropout rate, researchers at the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy shed light on strategies Massachusetts schools and districts are using to reduce their dropout rates.

3. 4.10 – BOULDER, Colo. and TEMPE, Ariz. (March 3, 2010) — A new Think Tank Review finds that a recent Brookings report fails to provide the necessary evidence to support its call for a federally led, universal expansion of school choice.

As the call for more stringent forms of accountability and transparency in higher education have become louder, the major trade associations have responded by creating two voluntary, public databases to which schools can submit new information on college costs and quality.

3.1.10 – Judged by most standards, America and the world are better off today than they were a year ago when President Obama entered office. While few Americans will forget the fear of global economic meltdown that accompanied the 44th president’s inauguration and the drastic stimulus and triage measures

2.24.10 – Barry Stern, Ph.D. – The Gates Foundation is spending $500 million to understand and improve teacher effectiveness. It will likely confirm what we know already about great teaching, perhaps with a few tweaks, such as those noted below:

2.23.10 – BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO – A day after President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan laid out an aggressive plan to expand federal control over K-12 academic standards at the National Governors Association (NGA) winter meetings, a new report criticizes the national standards process as “opaque”

(Cambridge, MA) – As Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls for major reforms to the nation’s teacher preparation programs, a report issued by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy highlights the role that innovative practice-based teacher preparation programs play in improving the ranks of the teaching profession in Massachusetts.

2.19.10 – What, in conjunction with good schools, is necessary to increase the chances that all children, especially disadvantaged ones, will enter and leave school with the skills they need for 21st-century success?

2.19.10 – Arlington, Va.­The Institute for Justice today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Winn v. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, which declared unconstitutional a 13-year-old Arizona school choice program that now provides private school scholarships to more than 28,000 children each year.

2.12.10 – This new Pioneer Institute policy brief on student writing in our schools will be helpful if it highlights the understanding that students will need to write often and at length in college and beyond.

2.12.10 – Most of them involve making better use of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System data that has been available but inadequately used since the early nineties.