by Jack Jennings | Oct 13, 2016 | accountability, federal education policy, school reform, teacher evaluations, testing
During this election year, Hillary Clinton has offered few ideas to improve elementary and secondary schools. Donald Trump proposed an unrealistic plan to shift federal funds from educating children from low-income families and children with disabilities to instead...
by Jack Jennings | Aug 29, 2016 | college degrees, costs of college, professors, student debt, student loans
What can be done to make college more affordable? How can students avoid having to take out so many loans? In answering these questions, colleges and universities may have to become more frugal by having senior faculty teach freshmen and sophomore courses and...
by Jack Jennings | Aug 9, 2016 | college degrees, job-related education, vocational education
A homegrown, rapidly expanding American invention is a cost-effective tool for increasing post-secondary educational attainment and gainful employment. It is the quickest education and job training award offered by American higher education, and has the capacity to...
by Jack Jennings | Jul 23, 2016 | federal education policy, federal funding, No Child Left Behind, teachers
Should schools with student bodies primarily from low-income families spend less on the education of those children than is spent on the education of other students in the same school district? Of course not! That practice violates common sense norms of justice and...
by Jack Jennings | Jun 16, 2016 | accountability, federal education policy, federal funding, No Child Left Behind, teacher evaluations, teacher performance, teachers, testing
Fifty Years of Federal Aid to Schools: Back into the Future? Jack Jennings* Excerpts from an article appearing in Volume 3 Education Law & Policy Review 2016 In 1965, the federal government began to provide major financial aid for education to states and local...
by Jack Jennings | May 23, 2016 | federal education policy, private schools / vouchers, school choice, school reform
Public schools would be better if two major obstacles were removed. Teachers’ unions have injected too much partisanship into schooling, and conservatives have undercut the promise of a good education for all students. These two issues are interconnected. The more the...
by Jack Jennings | May 17, 2016 | college degrees, costs of college, federal funding, student loans
“College costs too much!” “My college loans are killing me!” The candidates for the presidency are hearing these complaints as they race around the country. Affordability of a college education is among the few education issues to attract attention in this election...
by Jack Jennings | Feb 13, 2016 | academic standards, college degrees, No Child Left Behind, school reform, teachers, testing
Higher education has a bone to pick with public schools. Too many high school graduates entering colleges and universities are not prepared for post-secondary education. That complaint is true enough, but the missing element is that lower education cannot improve...
by Jack Jennings | Jan 23, 2016 | accountability, children with disabilities, federal education policy, inner city schools, No Child Left Behind, school choice, school reform, secure and safe, teachers, testing
John Thompson is a truth-teller. A Teacher’s Tale, his new book, honestly addresses the toughest issue in American education—how to improve urban schools impacted by concentrations of poor children. Thompson worked in higher education and then did legislative lobbying...
by Jack Jennings | Dec 20, 2015 | academic standards, accountability, Common State Standards, federal education policy, NAEP, No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, school reform, teacher evaluations, testing
No other federal law has generated more hostility from teachers and other educators than the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). That statute has been denounced for causing too much testing of school children, making teachers “teach to the test” to avoid penalties, and...
