General Audience Articles

Teaching Math to the Talented: Which countries - and states - are producing high-achieving students?. Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Ludger Woessmann. Education Next, 11(1), 10-18. Winter 2011.

In Vancouver last winter, the United States proved its competitive spirit by winning more medals—gold, silver, and bronze—at the Winter Olympic Games than any other country, although the German member of our research team insists on pointing out that Canada and Germany both won more gold medals than the United States. But if there is some dispute about which Olympic medals to count, there is no question about American math performance: the United States does not deserve even a paper medal.

Meeting of the Minds. William G. Howell, Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West. Education Next, 11(1), 20-31. Winter 2011.

Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., are more polarized today than they have been in nearly a century. And among the general public, party identification remains the single most powerful predictor of people’s opinions about a wide range of policy issues. Given this environment, reaching consensus on almost any issue of consequence would appear difficult. And when it comes to education policy, which does a particularly good job of stirring people’s passions, opportunities for advancing meaningful policy reform would appear entirely fleeting.

State Standards Rise in Reading, Fall in Math. Paul Peterson, Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón. Education Next, 10(4), 12-16. Fall 2010.

Much ado has been made about setting high standards over the past year. In his first major address on education policy, given just two months after he took the oath of office, President Barack Obama put the issue on the national agenda.

The Persuadable Public. William Howell, Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West. Education Next, 9(4), 20-29. 2009.

What do Americans think about their schools? More important, perhaps, what would it take to change their minds? Can a president at the peak of his popularity convince people to rethink their positions on specific education reforms? Might research findings do so? And when do new facts have the potential to alter public thinking? Answers to these questions can be gleaned from surveys conducted over the past three years under the auspices of Education Next and Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG).

The Emerging Field of Education Policy. Paul PetersonIn Gary King, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Norman H. Nie, Eds.. The Future of Political Science: 100 Perspectives. Routledge, New York. 2009.
For-Profit and Nonprofit Management in Philadelphia Schools. Matthew M. Chingos, Paul E. Peterson. Education Next, 9(2), 64-70. 2009.
The 2008 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion: Americans think less of their schools than of their police departments and post offices. William Howell, Martin West , Paul Peterson. Education Next, 8(4), 12-26. 2008.

Americans clearly have had their fill of a sluggish economy and an unpopular war. Their frustration now may also extend to public education. In this, the second annual national survey of U.S. adults conducted under the auspices of Education Next and the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard University, we observe a public that takes an increasingly critical view both of public schools as they exist today and, perhaps ironically, of many prominent reforms designed to improve them.

Few States Set World-Class Standards: In fact, most render the notion of proficiency meaningless. Frederick Hess, Paul E. Peterson. Education Next, 8(3), 70-73. 2008.
Education. Paul PetersonIn P. Schuck and J. Wilson, Eds.. Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation. Public Affairs, New York. 2008.
A Lens that Distorts: NCLB’s faulty way of measuring school quality. Paul Peterson. Education Next, 7(4), 46-51. 2007.
What Americans Think about Their Schools: The 2007 Education Next - PEPG Survey. William Howell, Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West. Education Next, 7(4), 12-26. 2007.
The NCES Private-Public School Study: Findings are other than they seem. Elena Llaudet, Paul E. Peterson. Education Next, 7(1), 75-79. 2007.

On July 14, 2006, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th graders attending private and public schools. The study had been undertaken at the request of the NCES by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

School Choice in Milwaukee: Fifteen Years Later. Paul Peterson, Nathan Torinus, Brad SmithIn Paul T. Hill, Ed.. Charter Schools Against All Odds. Education Next Books, Stanford University, Stanford, California. 2006.

Whether or not the supply of schools can meet the parental demand for choice has been central to the school choice debate for more than a decade. Unfortunately, the two sides to the debate often carry their argument to the extreme. On the one side, one finds, to coin a term, the strict inelasticians: Those who assume that supply will not change in response to an increase in demand. When model builders make such an assumption, they easily reach the conclusion that choice systems will necessarily be highly stratified.

Productivity of Public and Private Schools. Paul PetersonIn Eric Hanushek, Ed.. Courting Failure: How School Adequacy Lawsuits Pervert Judges’ Good Intentions and Harm Our Children. Hoover Institutional Press, Stanford, California. 2006.