Sara Mead's Policy Notebook
Sara Mead was a senior associate with Bellwether Education Partners who wrote about education policy, with particular attention to early childhood education, school reform, and improving educational outcomes for low-income students. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm thankful for a lot of things this Thanksgiving, including improved educational outcomes in my hometown of Washington, D.C., the great charter and DCPS educators who have contributed to those trends, and the great teachers who've had a lasting impact on my life (especially my dad and sister!). If you're thankful for teachers in your life, please join the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in saying thanks this Thanksgiving.
Education
Opinion
Pre-K Research: Disappointing =/= Devastating
I'd agree with Russ Whitehurst that the latest findings from the independent evaluation of Tennessee's VPK program are hardly good news for universal pre-k advocates. Where I'd disagree is Russ' assertion that this single study represents some kind of devastating blow to the case for pre-k. For at least the past decade, the case for pre-k has been based not on a single study but on a growing body of evidence--from states as diverse as New Jersey and Texas, as well as internationally--that quality early childhood programs have positive results for kids. While it's indeed troubling that the strong results of VPK observed at the end of preschool don't appear to extend into first grade, this does not discount the remaining evidence that exists here.
Education
Opinion
The Kludgeocracy of Preschool
My former colleague Steve Teles has a thought provoking piece in the fall issue of National Affairs arguing that the defining issue of contemporary U.S. domestic policy is not the size of government, but the complexity and incoherence of public programs and policy. This complexity and incoherence, which Teles calls, "kludgeocracy," is the result of both the multiple veto points in our system (which lead to a reliance on temporary, make due patches--or kludges--in response to specific needs or challeges, rather than more coherent and far-reaching solutions), as well as efforts to limit or mask the magnitude of government involvement (for example, by subsidizing activities through the tax code rather than direct expenditures).
Education
Opinion
Paying for Pre-K
One of the big questions about pre-k expansion proposals is how to pay for them. I'd posit that the Congressional Budget Office's just-released Summary Table of Options for Reducing the Deficit might be a good place to look for potential savings with which to fund pre-k investments.
Education
Opinion
Questions on Proposed Pre-K Legislation
In my previous posts I described the key features of the pre-k bill released today, as well as what I think is good and not so good about it. But I still have some questions:
Education Funding
Opinion
Proposed Pre-k Legislation: What's Good, What's Not So Good
In my previous post, I explained some of the key things that the pre-k bills introduced today by Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller do. Here are some things to keep an eye on:
Education
Opinion
Pre-K Bills Cheat Sheet
After months of negotiations and rumors, Senate HELP Committee Chair Tom Harkin (D-Ia.), House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member George Miller (D-Calif.), and Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) have released proposed legislation to enact the federal-state pre-k partnership proposed by President Obama in this year's State of the Union Address.
Education
Opinion
Universal Pre-K in NYC? Three Questions, a Choice, and Two Pieces of Advice for the Mayor-elect
Now that Bill deBlasio is officially the next Mayor of New York City, a few folks have asked me for my take on the universal pre-k proposal that was a centerpiece of his campaign. As is often the case with campaign plans, there's not a lot of detail out there, so I don't have a lot to say. But here are a few key questions:
Education
Opinion
The Value of College
A smart new College Summit paper by my colleagues Andrew Rotherham and Chad Aldeman, with JB Schramm, Jordan Cross, and Rachael Brown, calls dookey on the "are we sending too many people to college?" and "is college a bad investment" debates (long story short: the answer to both questions is no). Unlike those debates, which tend to traffic in anecdotes, extremes, and scare tactics, this new paper is chock-full of fascinating and informative data points (did you know that plumbers with a college degree make 39 percent more than those without?). Key takeaway: since postsecondary credentials are increasingly necessary for family-supporting jobs, we need to do a better job of helping prepare and support students--particularly those from low-income backgrounds--to enroll in and successfully complete postsecondary education, as well as providing much better information to help students understand their options and make smart choices.
Education
Opinion
Effective Pre-k Policies Must Include Systematic Attention to Content and Language Development
Great blog post from the Albert Shanker Institute's Esther Quintero pegs off of recent news coverage of the "word gap" in young children's early language exposure and vocabulary to highlight the need to strategically support young children in developing both a broad vocabulary and background knowledge. In other words--it's not enough for adults to simply talk more to kids; how they talk matters!
Education
Opinion
Can We Pay Teachers More Without Increasing Education Spending?
A new paper from Public Impact says "yes!" and offers some innovative ideas how. I'm particularly interested in the idea to offer teachers options of working reduced hours for proportionately lower pay. Teaching is a predominantly female profession, and polling data suggests that, while a majority women with children under 18 want to work, many would prefer to work part-time rather than full-time, but it can be difficult for working mothers to find rewarding part-time positions in their fields. Offering more opportunities for teachers to work less than the full teaching load could be an attractive strategy to attract and retain talented moms (and dads) in the field, and could also create opportunities for career changes or others who would like to teach but continue to do some work in their original field.
Education
Opinion
An Apology, a Promise, and Some Must-Read Links!
If you've been following this blog, you may have noticed that I haven't written very much here lately. I'm sorry about that. Between a hectic travel schedule and a fall bug that's been going around, I've been a little swamped lately and haven't had much time to write. I promise to correct that and be back to regular posting starting in early November.
Education
Opinion
Self-Regulation and Social-Emotional Learning: Let's Not Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater
Reading Elizabeth Weil's recent New Republic piece on social-emotional learning was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for me: On the one hand, it's kind of exciting when a wonky elite policy magazine decides to devote cover space to a fairly complex child development and instructional topic like how educators support children's social-emotional development. On the other hand, Weil's piece is a good example of why it's probably a good thing this doesn't happen more often--a lot of stuff ends up wrong.
Education
Opinion
Manifesto: Let's Stop Calling People Bad People!
You are a bad person if you judge other people based on where they send their children school. Not bad like murderer bad--but bad like US-magazine-calling-pregnant-starlets-"fat"-bad. So, pretty bad.