1. Policy studies for education leaders Exercises Chapter 7

2. 1. Questions and activities for discussion 1.1 Select a current education problem definition. Identify the claims made about it and the evidence used to support those claims. Then suggest how this problem definition could be effectively changed. 1.2 Select a current education problem definition. Identify the claims made about it and the evidence used to support them. Then suggest how the issue could be redefined.

3. 1.3 Identify a nondecision in your district or state. In your opinion, why has it remained a nondecision? What does this nondecision reveal about the constraints on education policy making in your environment? 1.4 By skimming recent issues of publications put out by business and education groups, develop a list of the education issues on the professional policy agenda. Then, by skimming several recent local newspapers, develop a list of the education policy issues on the media agenda. Compare the two agendas. What differences do you notice? How do you explain them?

4. 2. Pro-con debate: Is there really an education crisis? YES: No one who is willing to look at the evidence can deny that there is a education crisis in the United States. Since standards were lowered in the silly Sixties, student performance on tests such as the SAT and the ACT has plummeted. In almost every international comparison, U.S. students make a poor showing; it is a cause for rejoicing in the education establishment if they rank average rather than dead last.

5. Our schools are not even safe anymore; both children and teachers fear for their lives as gang members roam the halls, looking for someone to bully or rob. Many schools even have metal detectors at the entrances these days to check students for weapons as they enter. Finally, school buildings are in a shocking state—they are filthy with graffiti scrawled everywhere and basic equipment in disrepair. How can children learn well in such setting? All these problems seriously hamper the ability of the United States to compete effectively in today’s global economy.

6. NO: There is a crisis in the United States today, but it’s not an education crisis—it’s an economic crisis. Real wages have stagnated for a quarter of a century now; middle-class families have a hard time buying a house and providing college educations for their children; the gap between the rich and the poor is constantly growing. The United States now has a higher rate of child poverty than any other developed country. Often these indicators are hard to see, but we can see more obvious ones.

7. Decades of insufficient tax revenues have led to deferred maintenance, causing our inner cities to decline, becoming shabby crime centers in which few people would willingly live, work, or shop. And much of our once-prized interstate highway system is now pocked with potholes, again because of inadequate public funds for their repair. Of course, all these problems spill over into the schools, which simply reflect the larger society. Government and business leaders prattle about an education crisis, hoping we will not notice the real economic crisis… for which they, not educators, are responsible. Fix the economy and the schools will improve.

8. 3. NEWS STORY FOR ANALYSIS: MAKING SCHOOLS MORE EFFICIENT Official government statistics make no attempt to measure productivity in public education. In particular, there’s enormous dispute over how to measure the “output” of education. But assuming that test scores are a reasonable measure of educational output, public schools are getting less productive by the year.

9. In 1972-1973, each $1,000 of spending per pupil “bought” 63 points on the National Assessment of Educational Progress math test for 17-year-olds, according to calculations by Harvard University economist Caroline M. Hoxby. By 1998-1999, that same level of spending “bought” only 39 points. The trend is similar for other tests and ages. To correct for inflation, all spending is stated in 1999 dollars.

10. What’s the solution? Hoxby argues that educational productivity rises if parents have more choice among schools. That forces schools to become more efficient to retain students. For example, in metro areas with many school districts, such as Boston and Pittsburgh, parents can easily switch school districts by moving to another town in the same area. In other areas, a large number of traditional private schools provide an effective alternative to the public school system.

11. By comparing test scores in areas with and without choice, Hoxby concludes that competition makes public schools more productive. She calculates that the productivity of American schools would rise 28% if all metro areas had ample inter-district competition and many private schools. She also finds good results from newer forms of choice, such as vouchers in Milwaukee and Arizona.

12. Questions: 1. In one sentence, state the definition of the education policy issue presented in this article. 2. What claims does the author provide to support the claims? 3. What evidence does the author provide to support the claims? 4. In your opinion, why did BusinessWeek Online think that its readers would find Hoxby’s research interesting? 5. Challenge this issue definition and redefine the issue, using other evidence with which you are familiar and offering a different solution.